THE RISING USO TIDE

Rear Admiral (ret.) Tim Gallaudet, a former Administrator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), acting Under Secretary of Commerce, Oceanographer of the US Navy, and Superintendent of the US Naval Observatory Currently, a research affiliate for Harvard University’s Galileo Project, an Advisory Board member for Americans for Safe Aerospace and the Sol Foundation, and a member of the White House Ocean Research Advisory Panel, the Ocean Studies Board in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the Director’s Council for Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is impressively credentialed for the cause of refocusing on the rising tide of UFOs (UAP) reported as seen, or in close proximity with, or interacting with the medium of water – USO.

He was the author of the SoL Foundation first white paper in March 2024, “Beneath the Surface - We May Learn More about UAP by Looking in the Ocean,” which recommended “… transmedium UAP and USOs should be elevated to national ocean research priorities Such action by the US government, academia, philanthropies, the private sector, and the international community can benefit both maritime security and scientific discovery.”

“Although there have been consistent reports of undersea UAP and legislative acknowledgment of them, the literature on this subject is sparse and unsystematic. There are only a handful of books and scattered accounts by largely nonprofessional researchers, in contrast with the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of books published about UAP sightings in the sky.  The third chapter of early ufologist Coral and Jim Lorenzen’s UFOs over the Americas, titled “Underwater UFOs,” may have been the first modern text on the topic, while Ivan Sanderson’s Invisible Residents appears to be the first book dedicated to USOs. Four decades later, Carl Feindt provided a thorough compendium of cases involving UAP and water in his work UFOs and Water.  More specific studies of transmedium UAP and USOs include a chronicle of eyewitness accounts off the coast of Southern California in Preston Dennett’s sensationally titled yet compelling Undersea UFO Base: An In-Depth Investigation of USOs in the Santa Catalina Channel, the extensive investigation by Chris Styles of a 1960 USO encounter in Shelburne Harbour, Nova Scotia, and the recent research conducted by John and Gerald Tedesco and Donna L. Nardo off the southern coast of Long Island. Rather than exploring a single event or region, Debbie Ziegelmeyer in a recent book provides a wide-ranging review of USOs and UAP near water. A forthcoming book by popular UAP historian Richard Dolan presents the most exhaustive examination to date, documenting over six hundred cases between 1711 to 2023 He draws from the Mutual UFO Network’s Case Management System database, the National UFO Reporting Center, and other studies (including those mentioned above)”

 

THE STRANGE GROOTE EYLANDT USO - 1964

When Ross Coulthart and Bryce Zabel interviewed Richard Dolan on their “Need to Know” podcast (16 October 2024) he confirmed he was bringing out a 3 volume book series to address the 672 USO cases he had gathered from the period from 1717 to 2024. Dolan drew attention to a fascinating 1964 event in northern Australian waters near Groote Eylandt, indicating I had confirmed that it was the first reported Australian “unknown” in the Royal Australian Air Force the official UAS (“Unusual Aerial Sightings”) summary listings, and that it was all the more unusual as it was an underwater sighting, not an aerial sighting, indeed it appeared to be one of the classic aquatic “light wheel” events that frequented the tropics in centuries past, and often put down to marine organism bioluminescence.

 

However, things are far from certain.  In an excellent review of “vast luminous wheels” of light in the seas of the world, Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht in “Redemption of the Damned – Vol.2: Sea & Space Phenomena – A Centennial Re-evaluation of Charles Fort’s ‘Book of the Damned’” concluded, “All quite bizarre, and frustrating.  We have many apparently reliable eyewitness accounts, most of them clearly relating to the same phenomenon.  Yet after more than a century there is still no satisfying explanation. We are reminded of the will-o-the-wisps, so prominent in the records of pre-20^thcentury naturalists.  They, too, departed from us, and took their secret with them into history.”  

 

Just how strange this event was, is evident in the RAAF (Department of Defence) Directorate of Air Force Intelligence (DAFI) file I examined back in the early 1980s.  The summary describes the report as follows: 

“Seen at sea by crew of a vessel NE Point of Groote Eylandt, WA. Large lights in water, made compass go ‘Haywire’. Shadow in centre of lights rotated clockwise, causing lights to pulsate.” 

Biologist, Ivan T. Sanderson, lists it in his book 1970 “Invisible Residents - A Disquisition upon Certain Matters Maritime, and the Possibility of Intelligent Life under the Waters of This Earth” in a listing of submarine “light wheels”. Sanderson sourced his brief listing from a newspaper article. 

The Air Force Intelligence file report of the unusual sighting was made by the crew of the landing craft Loellen M and was located between Cape Grey and the north east point of Groote Eylandt, a large island on the western side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory. The official summary incorrectly lists the incident as occurring in ‘WA” (Western Australia). The report mentions that the vessel encountered a number of submarine “light patches”: 

“C. W__ turned on the compass light and found the vessel approx 60° off course. The compass went ‘Haywire’. 

As soon as he had corrected the vessel as best he could, he switched off the compass 

light and found the un-natural light was about 6ft. on the Starboard side. The light was in the water. It was described as a ghostly white light, in the centre was a shadow which rotated in a clockwise direction causing the light to pulsate. The light appeared to draw away to the stern. It is estimated that it was miles across and a few hundred yards through... 

“The light on the water passed about 100 yds to port. As the barge began to return to course, another light was seen coming at the barge at an angle of about 45° which [sic? - with?] the Bow. It came to within inches of the starboard side and appeared to rebound at 45° with the stern and moved away. It disappeared in a few seconds.... 

“All lights were the same colour, with this strange rotating shadow, causing the lights to pulsate. The pulsations timed at 12 for 9 seconds, then completely irregular, then settled down to 12 for 9 seconds. 

“The compass swung out of control, but became worse as the light approached...” 

 

I have long been fascinated by USO reports and have previously reported on a range of such cases, and I will include some of those. 

 

USO IN THE “FOG OF WAR” – VIETNAM circa 1970-71

 

But first, I will describe a previously unreported USO case from “the fog of war” – the Vietnam war - described to me by witness Tony S., a crewman on the Australian warship HMAS Perth on its third deployment in that war in the DMZ area during the period October 1970 and early March 1971. I had met Tony on 17 February 2008 - the closing day of the Penrith Regional Gallery & the Lewers Bequest exhibition - “The Australian Response to UFOs and Aliens”, where I had given a guided tour – a planned event to close the months long showing. This transcript comes from a brief follow-up video interview with Tony S on 28 February 2008: 

 

“We were doing a DMZ triangle.  We use to call it the triangle … There were a couple of blokes on board who were just having a smoke on the upper deck and they thought they saw a swimmer … people who were in the water, they would put limpet mines on the side of ships to blow them up, so you got … thing like that we believed to be true … At that time most of the ship were ordered to the upper deck.  If it did explode the ship’s company would be saved.  So we steamed off over the horizon of Vietnam, which would have been 14 or 29 odd mile away, over from the DMZ.  We stopped and did a bottom search of the ship, which revealed that nothing had been stuck on the bottom of the ship, which was lucky for us, and then we proceeded heading back towards Vietnam. 

“And on a way back to the Vietnam there appeared a white light in the water.  I can’t tell you how big it was, it was over 30 years, so … this was on a deployment, 3^rd deployment of Perth ’70 – ‘71 … and I can’t remember the day … It would have been half an hour … (this was happening at night). Yeah, it was at night.  When they saw the swimmers it was just on dusk … we were only 3 miles off the coast.

“(When they saw the light in the water) there were no obvious lights from the land. (When this thing bounced 3 times before it took off, do you recollect whether there was any surface reflection?)  No, No … we were a fair way from it … how can you explain it, it just came out, and it went bang, bang, bang and gone … There was no …. You couldn’t really tell, because it was at night, we were a fair distance away from it … its pretty hard to measure when you are at sea.

(In terms of all the hardware and equipment floating around during the Vietnam war, was there anything that would come close to what you saw?)  No, No … maybe a rocket, but I doubt it very much … no, nothing, with that much speed … unless somebody from above with a torch, but there weren’t any beams … It was like a big orb, like a big sphere, in the water, that’s all, and then it just came out (bounced) and was gone … like it was a round thing.

(In the wake of this what was the fallout, or you didn’t hear it?)  I didn’t hear anything about it until, like … a few people talked about it.  Very few people talk about it.  Its one of those things that people say (like at the Lewers (the Penrith Art) show) What you been drinking.  People don’t talk about it … Was it going to affect me in any sort of way … (It seems likely that would have attracted some sort of thing in the Perth records?) Well maybe, it wouldn’t get deleted … the sighting of the swimmers and when they went over the horizon, that would be in the record.”

 

       

1970 71 DMZ USO witness describing the bouncing of the USO and the big sphere itself.

A STRANGE SYDNEY USO REPORTED IN 1965 

In 1965 a strange letter appeared in the Australian Post magazine. A lady holidaying in Sydney described an extraordinary event.  From 5.30 to 6 pm she had been watching a strange pink cloud. At 7 pm she looked again and was amazed to see it moving towards the base of the cliff on which the house was.  As the cloud came forward she saw a snow white “flying saucer.”  The cloud was apparently formed from “steam” coming from vents in the outer edge of the object.  It emitted a noise like a well cared for engine.  As she watched, a shiny ladder was lowered from a hatchway, and a man came down and sat on a rung of the ladder.  He shone a strange beam of light into the sea.

Shortly after this a brilliant pink flare went up further out to sea, and the ladder with the man attached to it was retracted and the machine sped off in the direction of this flare.  In the moonlight the woman could see a long shape in the water, and when the machine reached this they both disappeared in a vivid pink flash.

The mention of a strange beam of light deployed by a man on the outside of a “flying saucer” brings to mind the following striking account from the Fijian islands during October of 1957. It was reported in the New Zealand Herald on 21 October 1957.   According to a report by the secretary of the Duanhas province the incident took place at 3 pm.  The witnesses, 4 Fijians, who lived in “a fairly isolated area, without access to comic books or other literature on flying saucers”, all agreed on the details of the experience. Their statement was obtained through R.O. Aveling, an official of a local Adventist Church, who had also seen an unusual light in the sky the night of the locals sighting. 

The four Fijians, two middle aged couples, reported seeing an object come down from the sky near the island of Mawaca, 8 miles from Naboulalu, southwest of Vanua Levu, while travelling in a punt with an outboard motor.  They first thought the object was an airplane in trouble and decided to go near it.

“As the Fijians came closer they found it hovering about 20 feet above the sea. It appeared to be revolving and they said they picked out what looked like the figure of a man standing on the outside of the object. This figure shone a very bright light on the boat, a light so powerful that they were dazzled and felt weak. When the boat was about 5 chains (100 yards) from the rotating object, the figure disappeared and the object then rose in a rapid vertical movement and was soon out
of sight.”

 

THE LONG REEF SYDNEY USO MILIEU THAT STOPPED TRAFFIC

The lady holidaying in Sydney back around 1965 did not specify which beach she was staying at. The following account from a senior Commonwealth officer (26 at the time) – describes a Sydney beachside sighting apparently witnessed by about 50 people at Long Reef on the evening of Thursday 24^thMay 1973. The case was investigated by my old friend David Buching, for the UFO Investigation Centre (UFOIC)

 

 “At about 10 minutes past seven … I was proceeding towards Dee Why and as I did the cars that were on the road in front of me headed to the side of the road and on to the big bank going through to Long Reef just as you come down over the top.  I thought there must be a ship on fire out to sea because there were people standing on the side of the road looking in that general direction.  So I continued down until I found a break in the road and did a U turn and as I turned I looked up into the sky and when I looked into the sky there was an object there that looked like an Arnott’s Arrowroot biscuit that was illuminated around the edges. It was quite a large size. It was oval not round.  I was looking out of the windscreen and it went over the roof of the car and I couldn’t see any more.  So I pulled in as quickly as I could, dived out of the car to see it going further over towards French’s Forest way.  It wasn’t going straight, it was going at a slight angle, sort of a half curved …

Witness sketch of the Long Reef "thing" & David Buching's 1973 photo of the site of the incident - with Dee Why Lagoon (centre) and Long Reef peninsula (to the left)

“Then I got out of the car and was standing on the footpath.  There was a woman standing there and I said, ‘My God I’ve never seen anything like that, what was it?’”

What the woman said to him put a very strange spin on the event that evening.

“She said, ‘I don’t know what it was.  There have been a few strange things here lately.  There’s been a submarine parked just off Long Reef for about 2 days and it never seemed to move.’ And she said, ‘Tonight when I was preparing dinner, out in the ocean it looked as though the water was boiling. I called my husband across to it and he said that he thought it was this submarine manoeuvring in underneath the thing. The next thing I knew was tonight when I went out on the front porch I saw this thing coming and it looked as though it came out of the ocean.  So I ran down to the bottom of the drive and here I am.’ That was literally her story of what she had seen.”

“She said to me that was unusual for there to be a submarine. It never moved so she said… The entrance to the (Dee Why) lagoon. It was directly out from that. She said it just went away.  There was another too.  About three minutes or so, while I was talking to her there was a plane that came over right behind this thing.  So I feel that the pilot of the plane might even have seen it and the plane was unusually lit in itself because it seemed to have an extra wide wingspan, but it still had the green and the red light.  And that was only a few minutes behind the thing. 

“… it was definitely a bigger type plane and it was low and it was about the same height as the thing that went in front of it.

“(The thing) was oval and it looked as though it had three more oval items underneath it like oval eggs underneath this one big egg … It looked to be in the shape of a bell … but none of the top was illuminated.  It was just sort of round this very edge…. Well round the edge it was just like a fluorescent.”  

What was going on here? UFO or IFO? The data does not allow us certainty.

 

Back in 2006 I worked with the History Channel in the preparation of a programme on Unidentified Submarine Objects (USOs). I described a number of Australian examples, such as the January 1962 encounter between the HMAS Voyager and a large and deep USO that was tracked by sonar doing some 100 knots. The local camera man told me of his own experience while working for BBC TV on a programme on RAF Leuchars base in Scotland back in 1972. 

2006 - USOs, the camera man, me & the Sydney Opera House

There he saw a map with multiple recorded UFO sightings in the area. He was told by one of the fighter pilots that encounters with UFOs were common. In an informal moment a RAF pilot showed the camera man a photo of a UFO with what appeared to be an entity shape in what seemed to be a dome cupola. The pilot claimed he had taken the photo from his jet cockpit as the UFO flew along side his aircraft. This experience appears to have occurred back in the 1960s, which puts it in the same era as a USO incident that alleged to have taken place off the Scotland coast. In that case a USO was allegedly "flushed" off the sea bottom and rose at speed out of the ocean in sight of the crew of a number of RN ships. That story emerged in a UFOIC investigation I did with Robb Tilley and Dominic Kelly back in 1992 into a striking Nowra NSW area close encounter which featured RAN interest, alleged radar interference, and a possible attempt to retrieve a UFO/USO! I also described it in my 1996 book “The OZ Files – the Australian UFO Story.”

THE EARLY 1970s - USO FALLOUT NEAR NOWRA

Elizabeth C. and her family regularly took their Christmas holidays on the South Coast of NSW.  One evening, Elizabeth stated she was driving an old Valiant car carrying 4 other people (her ill husband - who was asleep and under medication, and had no involvement in the incident; her two daughters, Jennifer (ca. 17) and Robyn (ca. 11 - 12); and Jennifer's boyfriend, Trevor G. (ca. 23, an off duty army officer) and a dog, on the Princes Highway, heading north.   The group was returning from an outing at Darris South, to their holiday spot at Shoalhaven Heads.

The date of the incident was originally estimated as the Christmas period of either 1972 or 1973.  Further information has confirmed the likely date as around early January, 1973.  The approximate time of the incident was 3.30 am. The duration of the event was approximately 15 minutes or more - the time it takes to drive at moderate speed along the Princes Highway, from the turn off to Sussex Inlet to just before the turnoff road to the Royal Australian Naval base, HMAS Albatross (Air Naval Station, Nowra) - a distance of approximately 24 kms.  This estimate is most likely understated as collectively the witnesses refer to durations between 15 to 30 minutes.

The encounter appears to have begun just as the group passed the turnoff to Sussex Inlet.  The seating arrangement in the car was as follows: Mrs. Elizabeth C. (r.h.s front - driver seat), Mr. C. (asleep in the l.h.s front), Mr. Trevor G. (l.h.s rear seat), Jennifer C. (middle rear), and Robyn C. (r.h.s rear).   The dog was on the floor in the rear.  Jennifer C. indicated that she remembers changing seats at various times with Trevor G.  Trevor was fairly certain that he had been located at the l.h.s rear window.

Mrs. C. drew the attention of the others to the presence of a light ahead.  To Elizabeth it appeared to look like the light from an approaching semi-trailer. Then it seemed to move to her left (the western side of the road) and approached the car, like an aircraft passing by.  It was as the object approached them on their left that the events took on an extraordinary turn.   The object, until then, largely perceived as a bright light source, appeared to reverse direction and take up a parallel flying position in the groups travelling direction.   This represented a 180^ochange in direction for the UFO.  At this point the object appeared to be very large, at very low level (virtually at ground level) and quite close, off the road to their left. It maintained a parallel course with them for approximately the next 24 kms.

Mrs. C. described the object as large, with red lights under what looked appeared to be portholes.  The red lights looked like a thin ribbon of light.  Mrs. C. said the night was very dark.   At that point the UFO was apparent as a large disc-shaped object with possible “window” features along its length.  There appeared to be a distinct “searchlight” like beam effect that rotated around the bottom of the object.   At least one of the witnesses, Trevor, the army officer, who was in the best position to see the extraordinary display, was certain that there were figures that could be seen in the windows of the object.

At a point near the turnoff to HMAS Albatross Naval base, the object seemed to suddenly vanish.  It appeared to have instantly relocated to a high altitude and moved in a large arc around Nowra and then headed out to sea, where it was lost to sight.

Later that morning one of the group investigated a disturbance at their campsite at Shoalhaven Heads.  She joined a large number of holidaying campers at the ocean edge. The disturbance was apparently due to a number of helicopters passing low over the campsite, heading out to sea. The member of the group observed the helicopters over a fiery mass in the water.  It was alleged that this object was UFO related and that the helicopters were involved in an attempted retrieval!

Because of their earlier experience and the campsite events, 3 members of the group - Mrs. C., her daughter, Jennifer, and Trevor - went to HMAS Albatross to report their experience.  Instead of a light hearted or unwelcome reception the group were the subject of an apparent high level and detailed interview.  They were told they seemed to be the closest people to the UFO, which seemed to have had numerous witnesses.  The army officer was certain he was told that the base radar had been affected by the UFO during the incident. The Scottish USO incident came up in discussions.  Trevor also indicated that after he had returned to his army unit he was interviewed about the south coast experience by intelligence officers.

In company with Dominic Kelly and Robb Tilley, I interviewed Mrs. C. in detail at her residence during August, 1992.  We found her to be an impressive and compelling witness.  We were left in no doubt that she was describing what appeared to be an extraordinary experience to the best of her abilities.  I was subsequently able to interview Trevor G. and Jennifer C. and I was impressed with their testimony.  There seems little doubt that something extraordinary happened but to date official confirmation has alluded us.  Unfortunately, nothing substantial was confirmed in official enquiries.  

 

RAF Leuchars base in Scotland was close to the location of the alleged UFO incident (or secret man-made object) ostensibly recorded in the 1990 Calvin photos recently in the spotlight.

 

Ivan T. Anderson trawled this era in some detail in his 1970 book “Invisible Residents – A Disquisition upon Certain Matters Maritime, and the Possibility of Intelligent Life under the waters of This Earth.” It became the focus of Carl Feindt’s UFO research, first through his www.waterufo.net website and his subsequent book “UFOs and Water.” Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle also published “Russia’s USO Secrets” in 2016.  Jan Aldrich of Project 1947 has produced a catalogue of UFOs/USOs reported by seagoing services. 

The USO enigma is an enduring and potent part of the UFO/UAP phenomenon.        

The Birmingham "UFO vision" manuscript via Herbert Rumsey has been found and viewed

Imagine learning of a strange and fascinating document back around 1975 that purported to be a copy of a memorandum book of a possible UFO milieu involving a “vision” of a mysterious flying “ark” that landed in Parramatta Park, Sydney, back in 1868, that a local surveyor, engineer and council officer, Frederick William Birmingham, had described going inside the “machine to go through the air” with the apparent “ark” pilot – a “spirit” – being “like a neutral tint shade and the shape of a man in his usual frock dress”.  Further events followed, including an event seemingly described as actual day time witnessed observation of strange clouds with a strange aerial object in March, 1873. Other strange events like poltergeist and prophetic type incidents, were described, leading Birmingham to an obsession to learn the secret of “the aerial machine.”

 

That was the broad nature of the 1868 – 1873 Parramatta Park mystery attributed to Frederick William Birmingham in a document described as a “COPY FROM THE MEMORANDUM BOOK OF Fred. Wm. BIRMINGHAM, The Engineer to the Council of Parramatta. A MACHINE TO GO THROUGH THE AIR. A.D. 1873.”

 

So began my examination of this fascinating historical account with a focus on establishing if the document was an authentic copy of a real historical document, determining if Birmingham was a real person, and examining the nature of the account.  

 

The following link will take you to some of the research carried out into this intriguing saga:

https://theozfiles.blogspot.com/search?q=Birmingham

 

Recently, discussing the Birmingham story with Spain based researcher Chris Aubeck, we covered some old territory, some possible new relevant areas of enquiry, and that he intended to correct errors in his earlier research in a further article. He mentioned there was one link to Birmingham material, he had not been able to check and it was in the University of Sydney Rare Books and Special Collections of Fisher Library.  It was described as [Letters to the editor of the Cumberland Mercury and Sydney Echo on Parramatta water supply and on aeronautics, also manuscript notes and receipts [ / [Frederick William Birmingham], 13 items, manuscript and a date range of 1864-1884.  This seemed intriguing so I told Chris I would attempt to get access as soon as I could and advise accordingly.

 

I examined the holding on Friday 2 August 2024, and I was amazed by what was there.  The collections staff advised me that there was not any information on its provenance, or how the material came to be filed there, and it appeared I was the first person to have examined the material. The contents quickly alerted me to their likely provenance and possible timing of their placement with the university. The presence of an empty “Rumsey’s Honest Seeds” bag, annotated with handwriting with “F.W. Birmingham Papers”, in the collection, clearly meant to me that it was material that Herbert Rumsey had acquired from Birmingham in the last few years of his life.  Birmingham died in December 1892. I had examined other Rumsey holdings before based on leads from his descendants and through other research.  I even got briefly excited when I examined Rumsey holdings in the Mitchell Library in Sydney and spotted a small black covered notebook, which approximated the description I had been given of Birmingham’s note book. Unfortunately, there was nothing relevant to Birmingham.  Herbert Rumsey, a well known horticulturalist and local history researcher, had written a letter in 1911 which was published in at least 2 separate newspapers - originally published in the Sydney based farmers newspaper “The Farmer and the Settler” on 21 November 1911 and in “The Richmond River Herald” on 5 December 1911 (the latter, which Chris Aubeck published in his 2013 report “Birmingham’s Ark”, has the rather uninformative headline: “Surveyed Melbourne and Grafton. Some Ancient History.” Chris did not publish the “The Farmer and Settler” account, which I found and published on my “Oz Files” blog site. It had a much more interesting headline: “An Early Day Surveyor thought he had discovered the secret of flying”). The importance of the Rumsey letter is that it clearly refered to Birmingham’s “vision” of July 1868, by both referring to the word “vision” and the date and year described in the only document we had so far - the copy I received in 1975 from Fred Phillips (honorary president of UFOIC). There could no longer be any doubt about the general nature of the story revealed in the 1950s copy of Birmingham’s “memorandum book”, lending further hope that something of an earlier vintage, perhaps Birmingham’s original material or more contemporary copies, may yet be found, and even better still, Birmingham’s diary and “flying machine” drawing. 

 

Now, on 2 August 2024, I finally had before me, some handwritten Birmingham memorandum extracts and a drawing apparently made by Birmingham of the “Rover”, a “flying machine” concept inspired by his 1868 vision. Later that night I sent Chris Aubeck an initial description of the holdings, perhaps made somewhat incoherent by the latest of the hour: 

(parts of the email have been corrected to tidy it up - B.C.)

Hi Chris,

I would say it went far better than I expected, but the materials will probably give sustenance to a range of ideas.

I will be brief as the hour is very late here, (I might be hallucinating Birmingham “steam monkey punk” “visions”) and I have significant commitments both Saturday and Sunday, which will probably I wont be able to develop a formal post until next week.

The file is Rumsey’s material, what he calls “F.W. Birmingham papers” apparently kept in a “Rumsey’s Honest seeds” bag, establishing provenance with the substance of Rumsey’s 19111 letter.

The materials are 3 small notebook sheets/pages presumably removed from a Birmingham notebook, revealing 6 pages in Birmingham's hand writing.  Parts of it refer to the material captured in Homan’s copy, but also covered is the “Victoria’s conspiracy” revealed in November 1873 (the same as the quotes via Ramsey he claims Birmingham referred to frequently”) revealed by “the same spirit (of 1868 ….)”, but with additions “Dec 4th 1873 (vision) the yellow hair (i.e.’Saxon’) and Mifs (sic?) long black single hair with a noose (underlined) upon it! I expect a call now in 3 hours … So in came the Father - Langly J.P wanting me to tell the Governor what I knew about any new machinery yes (difficult to make out some words) …”. He writes about commencing “teetotalism’ on October 20th 1862. "and have kept it to the present” (1868? as its mention in writing re July 1868, similarly to Homan’s copied text), refers to the daylight sighting, and clocks stopping as we’' (something missing in my early morning despatch – B.C.).

Theres a fragmented tourist map of Washington DC which seems to confirm he may have stayed at the National Hotel corner of  6 Street west and 7 streets west, with a hand written annotation on the back that includes the following: “I left it (Washington DC) (30 May 1887) by rail. Got to N York and sailed for Panama & San Francisco on June 1st and land for … 4 days quarantine on 4th of July. left Frisco on the (no day written) of July for Sydney and Parramatta”.

There are a number of informative newpaper clippings some annotated by him.  For example he writes the pseudonym “A Protestant” (by the way in his notes to Bishop Barker as the floating head back in July 1868) and he hand annotates this with “written by F.W. Birmingham Parramatta” in a letter to the Protestand Standard circa March 1876 on “John Giles on “Babylon, Elijah, & c”, confirmimg his deep Protestant religious convictions ending in “Because the Holy Ghost teaches us that in Christ’s light our souls shall yet see the fulfilment of that most gracious promise - eternal life.” He is clearly no spiritualist mediated “rational religious” adherent.

The 1875 letter we are familar with appears in this material as a clipping from Saturday January 24,1874 Cumberland Mercury with 1868 referred to, but there is an additional letter from January 21, 1874.

Plus, there is his drawing of the “Rover” with extensive annotations in his writing on a piece of “STEAM MONKEY” product description sheet.

And some receipts.

To belated bed! I have a busy weekend ahead with other commitments.

Regards, Bill

As I had a very busy week with many other commitments I followed up on 10 August with the following:

Hi Chris, I’ll be doing a detailed post which should emerge in coming days.  Here are some preliminaries.

I’ve been comparing Birmingham and Rumsey writing and it appears all this is apparently in Birmingham’s hand.

The Rover drawing but this was made apparently by Birmingham dated September 29 1892 only months before he passed away:

The Steam Monkeys background is related to Pile Driver testimonial document.  For a moment I was in “steam punk” territory.

 

Rumsey’s “filing system” which contained the “F W Birmingham papers” establishing provenance from Birmingham to Rumsey:

 

Here I’m holding one of 6 pages, apparently in Birmingham’s handwriting - the “manuscript” part of the library’s holding - note these are extracts, a pattern followed in the other 5 pages, referring to other diaries.  Birmingham may have preapared these for Ramsey, or he already had done them. The pages that cover the “vision” (1868) and the daylight sighting seem consistent with the Homan copy but less detailed. These extracts are what seems to be what Rumsey used to creat his 1911 letter, but Rumsey still made mistakes:

 

Birmingham’s To London in Four Days letter dated 22 January 1874 appears here in his clipping of the Cumberland Mercury of 24 January 1874, which correctly prefaces it with a reference to the 1868 vision.  There is also a follow up letter by Birmingham responding to queries from a Mr. N.W. Thomas that appears during February 1874.  There is nothing on Trove for the Cumberland Mercury in 1874:

 

There is a lot more which will give sustenance to various takes on Birmingham’s story. 

Fascinating,

Regards, Bill

 

The Birmingham “manuscript” via Herbert Rumsey: 

(transcribed by Bill Chalker August 2024 subject to correction)

Memorandums; F.W.B. ____ ¹ 

On October 20^thA.D. 1862, I commenced “teetotalism” and have kept it to the present and D.V. I purpose Same to the end of my life.

On or about 25 & 26^thJuly 1868, the vision of the vision of theheads in the air (Right rev.d Bishop Barker, “Metropolitan Bishop – and diming and showing Sir J.L. Martin’s and again the Bishop’s head, neck, & ties, then on looking up again for the Head – the “ark” was visible (and not the Head) I said ‘that’s a beautiful vefsel’ the holy spirit on my right hand said “that’s a machine to go through the air”.  I replied – ‘it appears to me more like a vessel for going on the water’ but, ‘At all events, it’s the lovliest thing I ever saw.     F.W.

My Memorandums

the Spirit replied, “Have you a wish to Enter upon it”? I said “Yes” – “Then Come” -  said the Spirit, it had now rested on the grass – and both of Us were lifted through the air onto the deck.  the Spirit as I stood moved towards the bow – the deck sounded hollow - , an air Cylinder was shown me as its use, by two signs. then the hatch, the Spirit going partly down, then returned bade me “Step in” or “down” 3 steps into the Steering room, the wooden walls & Side, & End were very thick i.e. strong looking. there seemed only a table _^ (or box shape) and Space for walking round it (the Sp^t. passes on deck to the Stern: I stood at the near End of the table with my fore fingers & thumbs on the Edge of the table, downcast and repenting like ‘why did I say yes? for I Know nothing about it’ in this mood I remained

Continued: - F.W. Birmingham ⁽³

For some time when I was addrefsd by the Spirit (on my right hand and on the side of the table) saying “Here are some papers for your guidance” – I looked and thought the figures and formulas hard or difficult

So I replied ‘Oh will I want them?’ 

answered thus, “It is absolutely necessary that you “Should Know these things.” – “but”, “you “Can study them as you go on.”----

After looking well to the top paper (printed papers they appeared) I cast my eyes downward and upon looking up for another view of the papers I found I was alone in the machine! –

N.B. the figures I saw in this _^(machine) came some 12 months afterwards into mypossefsion!!. F.W. Birmingham.

On the 27^thof March 1871 in the forenoon the verandah gate’s latch rose thrice!!

‘Now you cannot ‘rise’ said I after seeing well to it _^(for the third time) but it did!!!

(See full acc^t. in other – March ^_diary. F.W.B

My Memorandums

On the 15^thApril 1872. first insight

‘In the name of goodnefs how can I overcome gravity? Said I. then I felt a slight rub on my left Ear and the same voice I heard in the “ark” or “Machine to go through the air” said “Are not the sides greater than a third?”

‘Yes’ said I – If I can get the sides to help I can get up.’ F.W.B 

Dec.4^th. 1873 (vision) the yellow hair (i.e.’Saxon’) and Mifs L’^slong black single hair with a nooseupon it!

I expecteda Call out in 3 hours ..

So in came the Father – Langly.J.P wanting me to tell the Governor what I knew about any new machinery to.

“His Gov^r. told him he was very much like Gladstone the British premier & c.  &c I sent or requested Him to inform the Governor about 

N.B. Many a(unclear crossed out writing)the Assassinating decision of the British Gov.^t,

Continued. F.W. Birmingham.

And I doubt not, he has done so.

Langly has come to me during the last dozen years or so _^(as a “bush telegraph” messenger) – Then invitation to Port Hacking in Parkes’s premiership in A.D. 1874 Came from the Red Dragonalias the Secret Afsassins – the Gladstone Ministry! (See Subsequent Entries. F.W. Birmingham.

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On or about the month of November Anno Domino. 1873. The same Spirit ^{^}(of 1868 who explained the Ark to) revealed to me thus (vision ok(?))

“The British Government – have 

“decided – after Considering the 

“Circumstances of Your case – that

“AS you have discovered their 

“Secret You ought to Suffer 

“death.”!!! 

This revelation I believe firmly to be true and many small Signs Since all trend as circumstantial evidences but this voice I Knew, and true it is. F.W.B.

Memos Cont^d. F.W. Birmingham (⁵

On or about Sunday Ev^g(evening?) (ab^t7 pm) Mach (March) 9^th  A.D. 1873 – the three small clouds the Centre one showing me the rotating rods etc. plainer than Ever Pharaoh’s dream twice – but this, of mine, was by daylightand in (?)immediate reply to my thoughts etc – See diary for acct. of this wonder.

_______________________

Sunday about January (10^th?)1873. In answer to my enquiring when the machine w.^d (would?)be done or discovered by me? Instanter (sic?)three loud knocks on the iron roof and three lesser ones – Ergo – 3 years and three months _^or 33 years and by April this year (seems like a tick?) A.D. 1876 or 3 + 3 = 6 years (told …?) F.W. or 3X3 – 9 years?

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Dec.^r7^th(Sunday) 1873.  The Clock and watch both stopped at 10.30. (4 ~) am (am)

Strange to say they went on again and after half an hour stoppage return right!! 

  

 

Here at last last was a drawing of Birmingham’s “Rover” apparently by Birmingham:

 

Note the date of “Rover” drawing – Sept. 19^th’92 – Birmingham died on December 16^th, 1892 & was buried on December 19^th1892 – 3 months later – another Trinity?

 

Here in the collection was an earlier newspaper account (than 1875) of Birmingham’s letter of 22 January 1874 to the editor of the Cumberland Mercury: “TO LONDON IN FOUR DAYS! AERONAUTICS – (SHOWN IN A VISION A.D. 1868)” published on 24 January 1974:

The clipping in the collection was annotated on the back by “F.W.B.” with “Aeronautics” underlined:

 

A further letter by Birmingham dated 19 February 1874 following up a reader’s enquiry was published complete with cryptic allusions to his daylight sighting of March 9^th, 1873, and indicating he had not yet made a model of “the machine to go through the air”, “Freely I got and freely I give it”, Birmingham writes.:

 

In Rumsey’s Birmingham paper’s collection there appears a Sydney Morning Herald article dated 19 August, 1891 on Maxim’s “experimental flying machine” (“really a steam kite”) with an apparent annotation by Birmingham as “no good: … (word obscured by ink smudge) wrong.” Birmingham only had a few months to live.

 

There is a letter in “The Protestant Star” 1 April 1876, where Birmingham identifies himself as the anonymous letter writer – “A Protestant” - he hand annotates this with “written by F.W. Birmingham Parramatta” in a letter to the Protestand Standard circa March 1876 on “John Giles on “Babylon, Elijah, & c”, confirming his deep Protestant religious convictions ending in “Because the Holy Ghost teaches us that in Christ’s light our souls shall yet see the fulfilment of that most gracious promise - eternal life.” He is clearly no spiritualist mediated “rational religious” adherent - views that were present in his memorandum book entries.

 

 

Birmingham annotates an opinion piece that appeared in the Sydney Echo newspaper (30 September 1882), about “England and America”, which perhaps coloured his “conspiracy theories”: “N.B. But not “the upper tenth” – “= i.e. the “Mysterious Babylon” – The “House full of names of Blasphemy.”

 

Despite the limited and fragmented nature of Herbert Rumsey’s archive of “Birmingham’s papers” and that Rumsey presented a somewhat flawed view of their contents in his 1911 letter, the material in the University of Sydney rare materials collection offers researchers much food for thought for interpretations of Birmingham’s strange account of “a machine to go through the air” in Victorian times.

The 2001 Gundiah Queensland UFO “abduction” of Amy Rylance

The 2001 Gundiah Queensland UFO “abduction” of Amy Rylance is an apparent hoax. Using it to support a theory of UFO explanation such as “time travellers” or “aliens” is inappropriate. Commentators who just use it as content fodder for their podcasts, posts, lectures, commentating and whatever, really need to rethink their investigative and research capacities and their credibility.  Using the case because it’s a “good story” is simply disappointing.  I utilised the case, after extensive investigation, field research and critical analysis, as a “case study” in what a forensic approach could yield. The case also contributes to the important need for care and critical quality control of the UFO data.  That’s why I continue to be impressed with the Peter Khoury experiences, the main focus of my book “Hair of the Alien”. 

It is sometimes not an easy or popular perspective in the complexities of UFO and UAP controversies. I know I would rather be basing my research in carefully calibrated data and information, not the vagaries of uncritical embrace of belief mediated enthusiasm.

Extracted from my 2005 book “Hair of the Alien” (Note: Endnotes 142 to 146)

 

When a “solid light” case involves a little physical evidence, a forensic approach can draw some metaphorical blood, as this … case clearly illustrates. 

 

The Abducted Gundiah Crime Scene 

 

In early October 2001 an alien abduction story involving a “solid light” made headlines throughout Australia and began attracting interest from around the world. The investigation of this controversial case followed a classic forensic “crime scene” approach involving three different police jurisdictions. The incident had occurred on Thursday, October 4, 2001, at a Gundiah property near Tiaro, in southern Queensland, and concluded in the early hours of Friday, October 5, 2001. The next day Diane Harrison, the well-respected director of the Australian UFO Research Network, called and filled me in on the rapidly unfolding events. Based near Brisbane, in southern Queensland, she had been talking to the key participants. Diane asked if I wanted to get involved in the investigation, and I quickly agreed. We knew it wouldn’t take long for the “UFO bandwagon” to uncritically embrace the Gundiah case as a cause célèbre. We were determined to try to unravel the events—whether fact or fiction. 

The three people involved in the alleged events behind this extraordinary tale of abduction, teleportation, time distortion, aliens, “solid light,” and physical traces were Keith Rylance, thirty-nine, his wife Amy, twenty-two, and their business partner, Petra Heller, thirty- five. Their Gundiah property was apparently being developed as the Whispering Winds winery, as well as a potential venue for motocross and other activities. The startling account that emerged from our interviews with them was fleshed out with primary source material such as TV interviews and a witness statement provided to police. This is the story they told. 

 

Thursday, October 4, 2001 

Keith Rylance told us that he had gone to sleep in the bedroom of his mobile home at about 9:30 p.m. Petra had retired to her bedroom in the annex of the mobile home. Amy stayed on a couch watching TV in the annex room they used as a lounge. These locations were in close proximity, separated by a window and wall respectively from the lounge. Petra’s room had a door leading to the lounge, which was left ajar. The door to the bedroom, where Keith was, was apparently open to the lounge. Amy apparently fell asleep on the couch. 

On this stormy night, at around 11:15 p.m., Petra was reportedly woken up. When she entered the adjacent lounge, she was confronted by an extraordinary sight, which allegedly quickly overwhelmed her. A bizarre rectangular beam of light was being projected through the open window of the lounge. This light beam appeared to be truncated at the end. Inside the beam, Petra claims to have seen Amy in a prone position, being carried out headfirst through the window. Underneath her, but still within the beam, were items that had been on the coffee table adjacent to the couch where Amy had been sleeping. Before fainting in shock, Petra noticed that the beam was coming from a disc-shaped UFO hovering just above the ground a short distance away, near a tree at the rear of a clear section of the property, immediately behind the mobile home annex. 

A short while later Petra regained consciousness and began screaming. The commotion woke Keith, who stepped into the lounge and was confronted by a highly agitated Petra. The items that were originally on the coffee table were now on the floor in front of the window. He told us that he then found that the window screen was torn both vertically and along the bottom of the window frame. Unable to get any sense out of Petra, Keith rushed outside, trying to locate Amy. She was nowhere to be found. Keith then managed to get Petra to tell him what had happened. He initially didn’t believe her. After a second search for his wife, Keith decided to call the police. 

Keith called the nearby Tiaro police around 11:40 p.m. reporting that his wife had been abducted and asked for help. Due to the short staff at that time of night, it took about an hour and a half after the initial call for Senior Constable Robert Maragna from Tiaro and an officer from Maryborough to arrive at the site of the incident. 

 

Friday, October 5, 2001 

The police officers initially suspected foul play, perhaps even murder, until the bizarre circumstances of the alleged events came into focus. The two people, Keith and Petra, claimed that their companion, Amy Rylance, had been abducted by a “spaceship”! As the officers struggled to keep an open mind, they were joined by the officer in charge of the Tiaro police, Sergeant John Bosnjak, who had been asleep when the police called him to assist in the investigation. 

The three officers then investigated the site. They had found Keith Rylance and Petra Heller in an agitated state. There was no sign of Amy Rylance. They examined the torn screen. The right side of a flowering bush, commonly known as “yesterday, today, tomorrow,” located to the left side of the window with the torn screen, looked as if it had been affected by heat. The police took samples for possible later testing. 

While the police were at the property, the phone rang and was picked up by Keith. A woman was calling to say that she had taken a somewhat distressed and apparently dehydrated young woman from a BP gas station on the northern outskirts of the central Queensland city of Mackay, some 790 kilometers by road to the north of the Gundiah-Tiaro area. The young woman turned out to be Amy Rylance, and the female caller explained that Amy was apparently all right, and was at the Mackay hospital, where a doctor had examined her. Keith handed the phone to Senior Constable Maragna. 

Given these extraordinary circumstances, Mackay police were called in, making a total of three police stations involved in the investigation— Tiaro, Maryborough, and Mackay. 

Keith Rylance gave the police the keys to the property, packed up a substantial amount of their business and personal gear into a van, and set off for Mackay with Petra. 

Meanwhile, at Mackay, Constable J. A. Hansen, of Mackay police, interviewed Amy Rylance, around 2:30 Friday morning. Amy completed a written statement, notarized with a Justice Act, attesting that the statement was true to the best of her knowledge and belief, and that if admitted as evidence, she would be liable to prosecution if she had indicated anything in it that she knew was false. 

This statement indicated that her last recollection was of lying on the couch at the Gundiah property. She had no awareness of the events that Petra described, but claimed her next awareness was of waking up lying on a bench in a strange rectangular room. Illumination came from the walls and the ceiling. She was alone. She indicated she called out and heard what seemed to be a male voice, asking her to be calm and that everything would be all right and that she would not be harmed. Soon an opening appeared in the wall and a slender “guy” about six feet tall and covered in a full bodysuit walked into the room. He appeared to have a black mask on his face, with a hole for his eyes, nose, and mouth. He repeated his calming assurances. Amy felt she had been there awhile. The “guy” told her they were returning her to a place not far from where they took her, because the lights were wrong at the property and it wasn’t safe. 

The next thing she recollects is waking up on the ground with trees around her. She felt disoriented. She could smell the ocean. She was not sure how long she tumbled through bushland—it seemed to be a long time—but she felt she wasn’t making much progress. She then came out onto a road that looked like a highway and saw a light from a gas station. She walked into the station, where the staff, seeing her state, offered assistance. She accepted some water, as she felt somewhat dehydrated. Initially she was unable to answer questions, and didn’t know where she was. She was also asked if she had been drinking or was on drugs, to which she said no. Amy indicated she felt tired, sore, drained, and lethargic. She asked a woman at the service station to take her to the hospital, as she didn’t know where else to go. The woman and her friend took Amy to the hospital. 

Later Amy spoke with two police officers and also spoke with her husband Keith from the hospital. She then went to Mackay police station where she gave her statement. Amy also indicated that this sort of thing had never happened to her before, but when she was in the fifth year of school she had seen a large UFO surrounded by smaller objects. 

The police arranged to put Amy in a motel pending the arrival of her husband. He and Petra arrived during the day and spent considerable time with Amy discussing what happened. They reportedly took extensive notes as well as photographs of a triangular arrangement of marks on her inner right thigh, marks on each heel, and the growing out of her hair, which she had dyed earlier in the week. Her hair had apparently started to show its former color, suggesting that considerable time had passed, certainly more than a few hours. Her body hair had allegedly also become somewhat more pronounced than would otherwise be apparent for the short time involved. 

Keith Rylance said he then began to learn about the UFO subject on the internet at a café and bought a copy of Australasian Ufologist magazine in Mackay. He then contacted the Australian UFO Research Network number mentioned in the magazine. Diane Harrison took the call and for the next hour or so listened to the story that Keith and Amy told. Petra was apparently sleeping at the time. 

I put a call through to Keith at the motel, securing permission to record the conversation. Once again Petra was not available to talk about her part in the alleged events. Keith Rylance went into considerable detail about the events, referring often to the notes they had apparently compiled during the day. The details described covered the events Petra had witnessed, what Keith had experienced, and what Amy told them had happened to her during her experience. Finally, I spoke with Amy, mainly about the events before and after the claimed onboard experiences, because Keith had already gone into considerable detail about the latter. 

Keith Rylance seemed to want to control how both media and investigators would get involved. His desire to contact the media promptly led both Diane and me to suggest that he should think very carefully about the possible ramifications of doing so. Keith seemed to feel that it was important to get the story out, as it would come out 

anyway and this way he could control the way it did. He was also trying to restrict the way the investigators could or should look into their experience. He claimed they didn’t need to prove the experience. While he didn’t directly witness the experiences, he now believed both Amy and Petra. I explained to Keith that we wanted to look into the situation very thoroughly. I also explained how certain basic sampling procedures we could do with Amy’s marks would be important in verifying their story. 

Since the story seemed destined to be a big one, Diane and I decided to undertake a detailed on-site investigation. Keith Rylance had told us that the three of them would wait for us to come to Mackay, as they were in no apparent hurry to return to Gundiah. They gave us permission to visit the property in Gundiah on the way. 

 

Tuesday, October 9, 2001 

Diane and I traveled to Gundiah, arriving at the Whispering Winds winery property, just after 10 p.m. Because of the late hour, we obtained permission from the witnesses to stay there overnight. The next day we continued our investigation. Keith had arranged for a neighbor to regularly check on the two pets left behind, namely a parrot and a kelpie dog. He indicated to us that it would be okay to let the dog off for a run. When we let the dog off, we observed its behavior. At one point it jumped up on the window with the damaged screen. This gave some support to the possibility that at least some, if not all, of the damage, could have been caused by the dog, and closer inspection confirmed this. We also inspected the damaged plant and found a possible prosaic cause for it as well—simple heat stress from hot sunlight. A healthy flowering bush of the same species at Mt. Bassett cemetery in Mackay revealed similar damage. We also spoke to the police about the case. 

 

Wednesday, October 10, 2001 

In Mackay, we focused our attention on the area where Amy Rylance returned and tried to reconstruct the circumstances of Amy’s return. We spoke with the BP gas service station staff that turned over surveillance videotape that might contain Amy’s visit. The more we investigated the case, the more questions we had about it. Keith Rylance indicated to us he would be available for questions when we got to Mackay, but it became clear to us early on the first day of our investigations there that this was probably not going to be the case. When we contacted the motel where they had been the night before, their third motel in Mackay, we learned they had already checked out that morning. 

 

Thursday, October 11, 2001 

We left messages on Keith’s mobile phone but didn’t hear from him until early in the afternoon of our second day, as we were leaving Mackay. He apologized for not being available, but indicated they had relocated to an unspecified location after having fled the area following a kind of “men in black” experience. Keith reported being pursued by a high-powered, dark brown four-wheel truck, which they managed to evade. We never managed to sample Amy’s marks. Keith fell back on his mantra that this sort of evidence was not necessary to prove their case. 

 

Monday, October 15, 2001 

We heard from Keith Rylance again, but we were largely unsuccessful in getting him to answer some of the questions and issues raised in our investigation. We made him aware that Tiaro police would like to hear from him. Our preliminary investigation report, which was completed by October 14, was circulated on the Internet and published in the Australasian Ufologist. 142

 

Thursday, October 18, 2001 

I spoke with Keith Rylance again. He recanted his men-in-black experience, which he had told me had caused them to flee Mackay. Keith also told me he had spoken with the Maryborough police, but I responded that all investigation had been handed back to Tiaro police, the original investigating station. I suggested again that they would like to speak with him. 

 

Friday, October 19, 2001 

Keith Rylance called. He was clearly angry about the preliminary report Diane and I had written. He said that we had got it wrong and cited errors, namely, we had given his age as 40 (he was 39) and Petra’s age as 39 (she was 35). Petra said, “I forgive you.” I said we had gleaned that information from media reports, but that the actual case data was accurately reported, given our limited access. Keith then mellowed a bit and agreed to answer my questions by e-mail so we could move on and start talking about the events, that is, the craft, the alien, and so on. We had hoped to speak with Amy and Petra separately and privately, in much more detail, but Keith was omnipresent as the primary source of information. 

 

November 2001 

The mass-circulation women’s magazine New Idea came out with a four- page story on the affair, which revealed many of the details Keith and Amy Rylance had conveyed to us. In the article Amy was quoted as saying, “I didn’t do this to grab media attention. I know it sounds far- fetched, but I know it’s real and that’s all that matters.” 

The author of the article wrote: “[We] were in contact with Keith and Amy and even slept at their Gundiah house. Bill, considered one of the best researchers in his field, spoke to Keith about his desire to take DNA and blood samples from Amy. He argues that obtaining biological 

evidence is crucial to support her claims the triangular puncture marks on her thigh are evidence of alien experimentation. However, Amy, Keith and Petra then fled Gundiah, and the UFO investigators haven’t been able to complete their research.” The writer then quoted Diane as describing the case as “extraordinary and controversial,” and saying, “There are too many unanswered questions to draw any real conclusions. We want to keep an open, objective mind before we conclude one way or the other.” 143 

 

December 2001 

Keith Rylance’s contact details, mobile phone and e-mail, were no longer functional. Diane and I were resigned to the fact that we would probably never get any responses or answers to the numerous issues and questions we had. We were now highly dubious of the case. 

 

October 2002 

On the anniversary of the alleged event, the Fraser Coast Chronicle newspaper asked, “Why did they do it?” The story argued that the affair had been a hoax and highlighted some of the numerous forensic issues we and the police had found back in October 2001, and had unsuccessfully been seeking answers to from the trio. 

The Tiaro police were not so circumspect: “The police file remains open and Sergeant Robert Maragna [of Tiaro police] would love to talk to Amy, Keith and Petra and give them the bill for the hours of police time that went into investigating the alien abduction. ‘There were too many inconsistencies in their story for it to be true,’ said Sergeant Robert Maragna. During a search of the property police found black hair dye, paper towels and the burnt out remains of two flood lights and electrical wiring in an incinerator about 20 meters from the annex. ‘The most damning evidence are the phone records,’ said Sergeant Maragna.” Calls came from a motel in Rockhampton, which is between Gundiah and Mackay, to the Gundiah home the day before. The police scenario had Amy already on her way to Mackay via the Rockhampton motel, with the black dye being used by Petra later to play the blond Amy. The newspaper also quoted the Tiaro mayor John Horrex, however, who still believed the trio’s story of an alien abduction.144 

 

March 2003 

We were contacted by an overseas source who suggested the saga had more to do with some misguided secret Scientology “mission” to find a buried spaceship, as described in the Mission Earth science fiction series by Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard. The scenario seemed unbelievable, but the source claimed intimate knowledge of the incident. However, when we were at the Tiaro police station back in October 2001, we were shown a notebook, apparently owned by Petra, which the police had removed from the Gundiah property. The police were suspicious, as it seemed to have some strange content they thought might be connected to the weird story under investigation. I recognized some of its content as being related to Scientology, the words “Thetan” and “clearing,” for example, and then thought that it probably wasn’t relevant to our inquiries.145But given this new information, maybe it was. Recalling that the Gundiah property was called Whispering Winds, Diane mentioned that Hubbard, lived out his last years on a remote property in the United States— “It is a quiet place, a perfect place to hide.” 146It’s name? Whispering Winds! 

____________________________________________________________________

 

142 “The Gundiah Mackay Abduction Milieu” by Bill Chalker and Diane Harrison, Australasian Ufologist, Vol. 5 No. 4 2001, pp. 26–28. 

143 “The UFO Report—I Was Abducted by Aliens” by “Kate Johns,” New Idea, November 17, 2001, pp. 32–35. 

144 The “Fraser Coast Chronicle” series by Kevin Corcoran was published on October 11–12, 2002, with the following headlines: “Why did they do it?” “And where are they now? Beam of light carries woman through window to 1.8 m alien” “If a hoax—police say it was—what reason?” “Mayor reckons affair certainly was no hoax” and “Researchers find story did not add up.” 

145 Years before I had read Christopher Evans book Cults of Unreason (1973). 

146 See Bare Faced Messiah by Russell Miller (1987), 372. 

 

Note: Further enquiries indicated that the affair may have been some misguided or bizarre scientology mediated saga, which seemed more convoluted and unbelievable than the suspect UFO story. So much of the information we had gathered, some with the assistance of police, pointed towards a hoax.  None of our many critical questions and queries were satisfactorily responded to. Information gathered later increased our certainty that our final conclusion was that the case was a hoax.  A wider family connection with Keith Rylance indicated that he had told them it had been a hoax.  Some prominent UFO researchers, commentators and theorists have uncritically accepted the case as impressive and solid, some basing their positions largely on our initial preliminary report. None of these people actually investigated the case. Nor have they approach us for an update or our opinion.